Ben Wilhelmi

Tanzanian Air Force

 

I had landed in Dar es Salaam airport and was busy refueling the plane when I heard a screaming noise, high pitched, and coming quite fast. Planes are supposed to taxi at a brisk pace according to the book…well this one was running fast. A Mig 19 from the Tanzanian Air Force, or should I say a Shenyang J6 made in China under license. Early 50’s technology but supersonic though. One had taken off just before me landing, did a long turn and zoomed above the airport. Funny enough, the military pilots used a special frequency to talk with the controller and we have to rely on him to pass on the information, which I hate. In bad weather I’d be scared.

 

 

 

the silver things below the wings are not bombs, luckily, but fuel tanks.

 

then another one taxied by, at least 20 min later, fast moving too.

 

 

last time I saw for a show during independence day, they wore a

dull grey painting.

 

 

twin jet engines. Each of the jets did a pass above the terminal.

Some FVIP’s were around.

 

the last one was all white. Wonder why. Here it is visible that the second

pilot in the backseat (maybe not a pilot though) wears a leather helmet! The

front pilot wears a typical white helmet. But one the previous aircraft showed

a pilot with a leather one too. Very modern, on a jet!

 

in Mwanza, there are a lot of Mig 21’s, or Chinese make J7’s, rotting on a far corner

of the airport. They are supposedly newer than the Mig 19 but many crashed,

specially in lake Victoria after take off. They have only one engine.

The ejection seats rarely worked. I’ve neverseen any flying here in 10 years anyway.

Tanzania is far from being the only country to use these antiques, and to be fair,

the technology might old but they’ve been produced for many years in China.

some paintings

 

some bits of my “art”…as I have often said, I’m not creative, sadly. So I’m mostly trying to copy existing pieces of art.

 

a watercolor of Josephine baker, after Paul Colin’s.

 

  prehistoric rock art, inspired in a book on the subject.

 

 

Portraits in pastel, both from a book, “Faces of Africa” by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher.

 

 

 

watercolor, from “African Ceremonies”, also from Beckwith and Fisher.

 

pencil, advertising for Chanel.

I hope none of these artists or company will sue me…maybe I should just copy my own pictures?

some stories about weapons in Africa….

 

light weapons are a bit of an issue here in Africa, not as bad as in the USA of course, how could it be, but there are some people here who shouldn’t have been issued with guns. I was driving the other day when I saw a truck coming opposite overtaking cars. The driver was using his high beams to try to make his way by staying on the white line. I kept on going on my lane, not planning to move in the ditch or stop for another daily asshole. So the truck was forced to go back on his lane. I then realised it was a police truck followed by other police vehicles. None showing any flashing red or blue lights whatsoever. From the truck bed, full of policemen, one idiot, full of anger, pointed his Kalashnikov at me! Without thinking my diplomatic finger went straight up. Nothing to improve the “sniper’s” mood… Cops here can be a curious species, not endangered unfortunately.

Weapon training is pretty basic, if existing at all sometimes. Cops can be seen carrying the Kalashnikov like a shopping bag!

I was always scared when I once in a while flew money for the gold mines. That meant 2 guards were on board with shotguns. Hated it. One air pocket and kaboom!

one day in camp, we all woke up with a gun shot at 6AM. A ranger cleaning his weapon…in those days bandits had been attacking camps here and there in the country. Imagine how scared one can be in those conditions…

in South Africa some years back, during a military practice, only one bullet hit the target out of 2800 rounds! Embarrassed by the news, the military bought a simulator device…

you walk in the streets and see some private security guards standing in front of banks, holding a curious array of weapons. Kalashnikovs or rifles! Typical wrong kind of weapons for street fighting if the bystanders are to be taken into consideration. Some shotguns as well, slightly better maybe? Never a gun…

Kalashnikovs are nearly as common as machetes on the continent. As low as 100$ in “good” times. Even pastoralists or herders can be equipped in Kenya or northern Tanzania. Somalia is not too far.

Aeroplanes have been attacked on Tanzanian mining airstrips. For example one superb Pilatus PC12 (3 million $ aircraft) came back one day with 40 bullet holes in it. So much for the pressurization. Some people had died as well of course.

a friend of mine leading a walking safari with tourists in a national park…regulation requires to take (and pay) a ranger along. Bad news but what to do? That day the group came close to an elephant, very close. My friend told the party to stay quiet. Everybody behaved …except the ranger who ran away to climb the next tree!

similar story with another friend who had taken a scout with him to escort the tourists. The scout was carrying both weapons, his and my friend’s. Of course, they came close to some wild animal, a bit aggressive. When my friend turned around to get his rifle to shoot a warning, the scout was already running away with the 2 weapons! Both friends told me that they hated too to have these guys with guns (supposedly loaded) in their back. Same for me in an aeroplane.

and to finish on a grim note: Africa has bought in weapons over the decades since independence the equivalent of aid it has received. OK Africa is not the only culprit, let’s thanks the usual countries which were all too happy to provide these weapons. From Russia, USA, China, France… and Belgium too.

Grey, blue and brown tones, aerials in Tanzania

 

one week November 2007, around the active volcano Oldoinyo Lengai,

Rift Valley, Northern Tanzania.

The ash fall out was spectacular some days. Up to 70km away at times.

Those images were shot early morning when the light is said to be “cold”

in photographic terms, as opposed to “warm” in the late afternoon. “Cold”…

hence the blue metallic tone sometimes. The ash is normally grey. The grass has

been burnt or at least dried up by the hot ashes.

 

the little dots are Masai villages.

 

that grey layer of ashes has reached 40cm! No way for the animals

to survive, even with only one centimeter anyway. The grass tasted so

awful the animals preferred to starve.

 

 

that was nice to fly alone as I could yank the aeroplane the way I wanted,

let the controls free and shoot vertically. Passengers sometimes….

 

 

the cold blue is perfect here;

 

 

 

 

not very obvious on these low resolution pictures but the details are

interesting. In A3 or so, the gullies, the cow tracks, the old fields…

show up really well under the not so thick layer of ashes. See the square on

the right side of this image? A field

partially covered

 

      

on the outskirt of the ash fall out, the grass is more visible.

 

 

the aeroplane shadow…

 

 

this picture is the same as the one before but enlarged and cropped for clarity.

Animals are still visible in the enclosure. But that didn’t last, they had to leave.

old cameras part III

 

Should have been posted yesterday….last batch of Zorki pictures.

Mt Meru with Arusha  in the shade.

 

  

No shade here.

 

a lone tree on a hill near Arusha. Meru in the distance.

 

 

the same, another angle. Red filter to darken the blue sky and make it more dramatic.

 

the following pictures were shot in Ndutu (Ndutu Safari Lodge)on the edge of Ngoronogoro and Serengeti, and during the last wildebeest migrations in Dec 08.

So of course with a standard 50mm lens, one is a  it stuck to landscapes.

 

 

  

   

   

 

old cameras part II

 

 

this one is the Zorki C, the closest copy to the

Leica II. The lens, a standard 50mm, has first to be pulled

out and locked. Very old design but when I bought my

Leica M6 a few years ago, I chose a similar lens, still

available new. Quite flat when pushed in. Handy to

carry around.

 

a Zorki 3, similar to my 4, those came much later, in the

50’s. Zorki then did some cosmetic changes so these

cameras don’t look like copies anymore.

 

volcano Oldoynio Lengai.

 

 

 

Ndutu, on the Serengeti border, rising moon.

 

Grumeti River, Serengeti. Hippos.

 

 

 

hippo skull.

 

    

Mount Meru, Arusha

old cameras in Tanzania

 

about 2 weeks ago, I had made a post about old Russian cameras and the fun to use them with their basic technology as the old famous photographers used to. My respect for these guys has seriously increased since I’ve started. I had put a picture of the Zorki 4. Another model, the Zorki C, is shown here. Yes this one really looks like a Leica II from the 30’s. These are old copies, not quite fake, labelled Zorki and not Leica. So they are legal to buy and nevertheless I’ll have a real Leica II or similar model before long, I prefer to learn the skills to use those Russian antiques and trash a cheap copy instead of a vintage Leica under the harsh Tanzanian conditions of life. My leica M6, mush more recent and stronger, keeps me patient in the meantime.

 

Zanzibar, so here is Karine with her Zorki C, shooting me shooting her with my Zorki 4.

 

 

volcano Oldoinyo Lengai in action last year.

 

 

up and below, Arusha, on the slopes of mount Meru.

 

 

in the garden.

 

 

 

a red filter on a BW film will make a blue sky darker, more dramatic

 

one of the Caravans I used to fly, Ndutu airstrip.

 

the same volcano, on quiet days.

the black tone is the result of fresh lava particles dropped on the top. The

white tone is also lava particles but whitened after a few days by oxidization.

 

 

I suspect the apparent grain on some of these pictures above might be due to

underexposure while shooting, like this one above…

 

whereas this one, from the same film, is sharp and grainless. As I had explained,

there is no lightmeter on these cameras. So my judgment, once in a while…

in the garden and around the house…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

open book.

 

 

 

the following images could have been shot in any small town in Tanzania. But

it happens in the backstreets of Arusha and around the house.

 

selling grilled corns under the hot sun.

 

 

typical painted advertisement for hair dresser’s. The quality goes from really

bad to quite good. African women spend a fortune in haircut, or I should

say hair extensions and whigs. They rarely cut their hair since they hardly grow.

 

 

early age and already learning to ride an overloaded vehicle…of the wrong size.

 

selling fruit on the door step. Notice the tyres half buried. Nice stools…

and they won’t be stolen!

in the garden…

 

 

a nice plant in the garden, I don’t know the name though. When the wind is

blowing, these sword-shaped leaves rattle again each other. And I find the

noise pleasant. The regular geometric pattern and variations in colors

have attracted my attention for picture studies.

 

 

nice effect with the sun in the background.

 

 

playing with a big aperture on the lens and the narrow depth of field…

the leaves were positioned at 45° towards me. So the foreground is very blurry,

then a bit of sharpness appears, then the background is blurry as well.

 

 

 

variations in the shades between these 2 images.

 

altered in BW

Flying with FMS part XII

a village called Habere or Ghabere. Spelling is of course an issue in

remote areas where either the government didn't care to provide education

or the proud tribes, Masai for instance, didn't want to lose their culture and

refused to attend school lessons from the 'enemy'...

 

mother at work.

 

 

she was so proud of her gold clothe.

 

eyeing me suspiciously then laughing.

long hair for the mom, less than a year for the baby since birth.

 

this girl, I wish I'd had her for amodel for a while.

Such a striking face, very photogenic. But she

was a bit non cooperative.

 

 

typical wrapping in a veil, but nothing muslim.

 

 

 

half shy kid.

another striking face, but not more cooperative than the previous girl..

Flying with FMS partXI

 

 

 

on the south western shore of lake Natron,

Ngaresero. People as usual come for far. Some used

to come for the top of the escarpments behind.

Vertical cliffs, 2000 ft high! We're in the Rift Valley

after all. It would take one day for a healthy person

to climb up that wall. So, imagine for a sick or a

pregnant woman...Then Flying Medical Service opened

a new airstrip and clinic on top. Same amount of work

for us but big relief for the people.

 

bloody soccer...universal stuff.

 

 

a Masai hut...for adults! It looks like it's made for kids though.

another low profile hut.

 

all of these are from a Masai village just outside Serengeti, Mpopongi.

Don't waste time looking on a map!

 

 

 

 

 

herding the goats. Hard activity as you can see.

 

 

another grocery shop.